PROFESSOR ANNE BOOTH, EMINENT AND PROLIFIC SCHOLAR, GENEROUS FRIEND
AND COLLEAGUE
J. Thomas Lindblad and Thee Kian Wie Leiden University and Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI)
This Festschrift in honour of Professor Anne Booth on the occasion of her impending retirement from the Department of Economics at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, is to celebrate Anne’s formidable scholarly achievements and her generosity in sharing her research findings with her many colleagues, friends, and students.
University Education
Born in Wellington on the North Island of New Zealand, Anne, as her friends and colleagues call her, received her BA (Honours in Economics) at the Victoria University of Wellington in 1967. She subsequently pursued her postgraduate study in economics at the Australian National University (ANU) where she, under the guidance of the redoubtable Professor H.W. Arndt, wrote her doctoral dissertation on The Ipeda Land Tax in Indonesia. Anne received her PhD in economics in 1976.
Job Experience
After finishing her Ph.D. study, Anne took up a position as Visiting Lecturer at the Hasanuddin State University in Makassar, South Sulawesi. She served as Lecturer at the Department of Economics of the National University of Singapore from 1976 to 1979. She subsequently returned to ANU where she worked from 1979 to 1984 as Research Fellow at the Department of Economics
at the Research School of Pacific Studies. During this period, Anne, together with her colleague, Peter McCawley, edited and wrote several chapters in the book The Indonesian Economy during the Soeharto Era (Booth & McCawley 1981). This was the first major book in English on the Indonesian economy during the Soeharto era, setting high academic standards for serious economic research on the Indonesian economy.
In 1984 Anne was promoted to Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Economics, a post she held from 1984 to 1991. In 1988 Anne took a one-year leave from ANU to take up a position as Chief Technical Adviser for the Employment Creation Strategy Project, with the Jakarta Office of the ILO/UNDP office in Jakarta. In this capacity, Anne was responsible for commissioning a series of reports on aspects of employment strategy in Indonesia, including a report on the garment and plywood industries in Indonesia, prepared by Thee Kian Wie, Ahmad Hamid and Sukarna Wiranta.
During this period, Anne prepared two reports herself, one on employment in agriculture, and another on agricultural development in Indonesia.
In early 1991 Anne was appointed to the chair of Professor of Economics at the Department of Economics in the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, a post she has held up to retirement.
Consultancies and Advisory Appointments
Anne has conducted several consultancies, including participation as a consultant in February 1978 in the World Bank Mission to Indonesia on
‘Problems and Prospects of the Food-crop Sector’. From December 1980 to February 1981 Anne worked as a Consultant from to the UK’s Overseas Development Administration and Indonesia’s Department of Finance on
‘Central-Local Contributions to the Financing of Agricultural Development’.
Anne also participated in several seminars on central-regional financial relations in August 1980 and November 1981, held under the auspices of Indonesia’s Ministry of Finance.
In 1985 Anne participated in a World Bank Mission to Bangladesh which lasted from September through October. Anne’s participation in this Mission enabled her to gain a deeper understanding of the economic problems of other developing countries in Asia, besides her deep knowledge of the Indonesian economy.
In 1992 ILO/UNDP appointed Anne as Team Leader for an ILO/UNDP Comprehensive Mission on ‘Employment Strategy and Human Resource Development’ in Papua New Guinea (PNG). Anne edited the final report of this Mission which was subsequently published by ILO/ARTEP in 1993. This consultancy gave Anne a greater knowledge of the economic and social problems facing the largest country in the Southern Pacific region.
Publications
Anne has been an exceptionally prolific scholar, having published five monographs (Booth & Sundrum 1985; Booth 1988; Booth 1998; Booth 2007; Booth 2009). In addition, she edited or co-edited four volumes (Booth
& McCawley 1981; Booth 1992; Booth & Moskey 2003; Both, Manning &
Thee 2012). All nine books path-breaking and form an invaluable source of reference for other scholars interested in the economic and social history of Indonesia and other Asian nations.
Next to editing the volume of the Indonesian economy in the Soeharto era, Anne also wrote three chapters, one on fiscal policy, together with Peter McCawley; one on income distribution, co-authored with R.M. Sundrum, and a concluding chapter, co-authored with Peter McCawley (Booth & McCawley 1981). In the volume on Indonesia during the oil boom, Anne also wrote a chapter on fiscal policy, together with Mukul Asher, another chapter on the service sector in co-operation with Jennifer Alexander, and a third chapter on income distribution and poverty (Booth 1992). In the volume dedicated to Joan Hardjono, Anne wrote a brief introduction together with Thee Kian Wie as well as a perceptive chapter entitled ‘The Performance of the Indonesian Agricultural Sector: Twelve Questions and Some Tentative Answers’ (Booth, Manning & Thee 2012). This book received a favourable review by Tim Scott in TEMPO Weekly of 25 November 2012, and by Arianto Patunru in the Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies of April 2013.
Articles
In addition to the books mentioned above, Anne has over the past fifteen years published 21 book chapters, 21 articles in international, refereed journals and two other articles (Booth 2001; Booth 2005; Booth forthcoming).
Anne, a Generous Friend and Colleague
Anne has not only been an eminent and prolific scholar, but above all a generous friend and colleague. When she offers comments of her friends’
and colleagues’ books or articles, Anne only offers constructive comments or suggestions, never negative, let alone destructive comments.
Anne has never written critical book reviews, as she just refrains from writing critical book reviews, when she thinks that a book is badly written or contains erroneous analyses or conclusions.
Anne has also freely given her books, book chapters and journal articles to her friends and colleagues, interested in her perceptive analysis of the economic issues, challenges and performance of the Southeast Asian countries, particularly Indonesia, South Korea and Taiwan.
Anne is known for setting rigorous standards in scholarship and precision. As an individual, she has won widespread appreciation for her good heart.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books
Booth, Anne. 1988. Agricultural Development in Indonesia. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
---. 1998. Indonesian Economic Development in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: A History of Missed Opportunities. London/Basingstoke: Macmillan.
---. 2007. Colonial Legacies: Economic and Social Development in East and Southeast Asia. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.
---. 2009. The Economic Performance of the ASEAN Economies from the Mid- 1990s. London: Forum press.
Edited works
Booth, Anne and McCawley, Peter (editors). 1981. The Indonesian Economy during the Soeharto Era. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press.
---. (editor). 1992. The Oil Boom and After. Indonesian Economic Policy and Performance in the Soeharto Era. Singapore: Oxford University Press.
---. and Moskey, P. (editors). 2003. The New Poverty Strategies: What Have They Achieved? What Have We Learned? London: Palgrave Macmillan.
---. Manning, Chris and Thee Kian Wie (editors). 2012. Land, Livelihood, the Economy and the Environment in Indonesia. Essays in Honour of Joan Hardjono, Jakarta: Yayasan Pustaka Obor Indonesia.
Selected Articles
Booth, Anne. 2001. “The Historical Development of the Indonesian Statistical System”.
---. 2005. “Did It Really Help to be a Japanese Colony? East Asian Economic Performance in Historical Perspective”.
---. Forthcoming. “Accumulation, Development, and Exploitation in Different Colonial and Post-Colonial Contexts: Taiwan, Indonesia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 1900- 1980”. Economics and Finance in Indonesia.
